The Mysterious Affair at Styles: A Hercule Poirot Mystery

Captain Arthur Hastings, invalided in the Great War, is recuperating as a guest of John Cavendish at Styles Court, the "country-place" of John's autocratic old aunt, Emily Inglethorpe - she of a sizeable fortune, and so recently remarried to a man 20 years her junior. When Emily's sudden heart attack is found to be attributable to strychnine, Hastings recruits an old friend, now retired, to aid in the local investigation. With impeccable timing, Hercule Poirot, the famous Belgian detective, makes his dramatic entrance into the pages of crime literature.

Doomsday Book

For Oxford student Kivrin, traveling back to the 14th century is more than the culmination of her studies - it's the chance for a wonderful adventure. For Dunworthy, her mentor, it is cause for intense worry about the thousands of things that could go wrong.

Three Men in a Boat

Harris, George, and J. are three Victorian idlers. They decide a change of scene is called for from their usual lethargic routine. And why not a trip up the Thames in an open boat? They soon realise their idyll isn't quite what they bargained for.

Mrs Queen Takes the Train

An absolute delight of a debut novel by William Kuhn - author of Reading Jackie: Her Autobiography in Books - Mrs Queen Takes the Train wittily imagines the kerfuffle that transpires when a bored Queen Elizabeth strolls out of the palace in search of a little fun, leaving behind a desperate team of courtiers who must find the missing Windsor before a national scandal erupts.

All Creatures Great and Small

In this first volume of his memoirs, then-newly-qualified vet James Herriot arrives in the small Yorkshire village of Darrowby, and he has no idea what to expect. How will he get on with his new boss? The local farmers? And what will the animals think? This program is filled with hilarious and touching tales of the unpredictable Siegfried Farnon, his charming student brother Tristan, and Herriot's first encounters with a beautiful girl named Helen.

Sara says:"A Wonderful Listen--Stories That Never Get Old"

Publisher's Summary

There's a long tradition of English Christmas stories, sometimes serious, sometimes humorous, often revolving around ghosts and apparitions. Dickens drew on it in a serious vein in A Christmas Carol; here Jerome K. Jerome tells hilarious stories from around an English Christmas fireside.

A few selected Christmas poems and stories round out the program, including the classic story of the Nativity from the Bible.

"Told after Supper" by Jerome K. JeromeHere's a hilarious 19th-century piece you've probably never heard of. It's a wonderful spoof of the grand old English tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas. But in Jerome's work, everything goes hilariously wrong, and the narrator of the story even winds up wandering around on the streets, drunk as a lord, somewhat incompletely dressed!

"Christmas Trees" by Robert FrostIn this early poem, we hear Frost's dry, matter-of-fact New England voice making "a simple calculation" about "Christmas trees I didn't know I had".

"Mistletoe" by Walter de la MareThis dreamlike experience of a gentle touch from a special person late on Christmas night is as fine a piece of dreamland as one could wish.

"Ring Out!" by Alfred Lord TennysonA passionate appeal that the new year may be better than the old.

"The Three Kings" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The majesty and indeed the worldly wisdom of the three who came to give great gifts to the infant in the manger has never been better expressed.

Luke 2:1-20 (King James version)In the beautiful language of the King James Bible - the only successful contribution to literature ever made by a committee - we hear not only how a babe was born, but how his mother came to believe great things of him.